Friday, April 29, 2005

Daejeon lab replacing recently lost monkeys

The Daejeon research institute that lost 99 monkeys last week when a climate control system malfunctioned will buy 30 Philippine monkeys from an Indonesian laboratory, the Science Ministry said yesterday.

The accident killed all of the Philippine and marmoset monkeys at the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology's primate center, leaving it with only 36 African green monkeys. The institute said that the Philippine monkeys were worth 10 million won ($10,000) each, and the marmosets 3 million won. The marmosets came from Britain's Cambridge University.

The 30 monkeys on order are not likely to arrive at the research center anytime before June, an official there said, since they need to undergo strict quarantine inspections before being approved for use in research studies.